Diaper Cream Adventures*

I’m going to tell you a story.

The Hubster’s birthday was on the weekend, and we had the most lovely day on Saturday. We woke up to a beautiful sunny skies, and decided to go out on a family bike ride to check out some local yard sales. It was the kind of day that you wait all winter for–perfect temperature, beautiful warm breeze and gorgeous sunshine. It was perfect.

We ended our bike ride at the park to let Ruby run around a bit, and Hank had a snooze in the bike trailer. After our bike ride we went out for a sushi lunch as a family. Ruby was SO good in the restaurant, and the Hubster and I gorged ourselves on fabulous food. We ran a few errands after lunch, then came home and spent the rest of the day relaxing and working on a few chores around the house.

Ruby didn’t have a terribly long afternoon nap, and she played hard outside most of the day so we figured she would be pretty tired at bedtime. We read her some stories and put her down a little before 8pm. We normally hear her playing in her room for a little bit, but we weren’t surprised when we didn’t hear a peep out of her. After all, we had had a busy day.

The Hubster and I were watching the hockey game and were just starting to get ready for bed when she cried out a little before 10pm. I normally go in to check on her, so I figured she just needed to be tucked back in.

I opened the door and knelt by her bed. I kept the lights off so I wouldn’t wake her any further… but when I went to give her a hug, I noticed that her clothes felt damp. I thought that maybe she was overdressed and had sweat while she was sleeping, but when I hugged her I noticed she smelled funny. I couldn’t place the smell, but I knew it was familiar.

I quickly switched on the light.

Ruby was covered in diaper cream. My jaw dropped as I looked at her. It was all through her hair, all over her arms and legs, and all over her face.

Then I looked around the room. She had painted her bed +bedding, her table, her drawers, her cupboards and her “Baba”, her blanket that she drags around everywhere. There was also gobs of it on her turtle rug and it was mashed into the carpet. To give you an idea of how much she used, she emptied the jar at the forefront of the photo… and Sudocream spreads like creamy, white paint.

As I took it all in, I tried to figure out how she had done it. We always leave her cream up on a shelf where she can’t reach it. I quickly realized that she had taken her foam chair, carried it to the shelf and used it as a stool to climb up and get the cream.

Clever little monkey.

It was 10pm, and as she was already obviously upset I knew there was no point in getting angry with her. I called out for the Hubster, who walked in the room and just gasped. I took her down the hall to the bathroom, while he began to wipe up her artwork.

As I ran the tub and stripped her down, I realized that she must have been trying to imitate me. She loves to be with me while I get ready in the morning, and always asks for some “lotion” while I’m putting it on. I could see that she had rubbed in on her arms and legs like I do, and it looked like she had run it through her hair like I do with my mousse.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I scrubbed it off her arms and tried to get it out of her hair. A word to the wise– combing baby powder through hair will pull out any oily substance (Vaseline, diaper cream, etc). It’s a life saver.

The Hubster was still wiping down her room when we returned from the bathroom, so we quickly changed her bedding and and ordered her into bed while we cleaned up as much as we could.

We amassed a monster load of laundry, but we got most of the cream off her furniture and removed every bottle of cream and lotion from her room (as well as her chair) before putting her back to bed.

It wasn’t quite the finish we had imagined for the Hubster’s birthday, but at least it wasn’t worse. I wish I had taken a minute to take a picture, but I was just so shocked at the sight of her and her room I immediately threw her in the tub.

Seeing as she has already done her hair with Vaseline (twice), I’m sure I’ll have another opportunity in the future anyway… haha!

How was your weekend? ha.